GREEK MARBLES AND SWEDISH PORPHYRY.

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white colour and a texture composed of fine shining scales lying in all directions. The celebrated Arundelian marbles at Oxford consist of Parian marble, as does also the Medicean Venus. More than twenty centuries have elapsed since the Parian quarries were abandoned in consequence of the decay of Grecian art; but in our enterprising days a company has been formed (1857) for working the beautiful marble which has been recently discovered near St. Minas, not far from the site of the ancient quarries, and is said to be superior not only to that of Carrara but even to the renowned Lychnites of the ancients.

The quarries which in olden times furnished the beautifully coloured marbles called Rosso antico and Verde antico had likewise for many centuries been abandoned and totally forgotten. In 1846 they were rediscovered on the island of Tino and in the Maina by Professor Siegel, who soon after undertook to work them, and has furnished, among others, a large number of the beautiful columns of Rosso antico which decorate the interior of the court of the basilica of St. Paul's

in Rome. The hammer of the quarryman once more resounds in the wilds of the Taygetos, and the lawless robber of the Maina already feels the beneficial influence of industry.

On the slopes of the mountains which bound the impetuous Oesterdal Elbe in Sweden, in a wild and desolate country, where the poverty of the people is so great that they frequently grind the bark of fir-trees to mix it with their bread, are situated the finest quarries of porphyry which Europe possesses. This beautiful stone, which attracts the eye even in its unpolished state, consists of a red-brown or blood-red mass, in which numerous small flesh-coloured felspar pieces are embedded. After having been rough-hewn on the spot, the blocks are transported to the neighbouring works of Elfdal, where they are cut and polished into slabs, vases, chimney-pieces, and other articles fit for the decoration of palaces. The contrast is most striking when, after having traversed the barren neighbourhood, and still deeply impressed with the sight of poverty and distress on his road, the traveller suddenly finds himself before a group of handsome buildings which at once bear witness to the activity within.

Besides the red porphyry of Elfdal, that of the Altai Mountains in Asia deserves to be noticed. It consists of a brown-red mass with snow-white crystals, and is capable of a very fine polish. The quarries are situated on the face of a high rock on the left bank of the Kurgun, one of the wildest mountain streams of the Altai, about one hundred miles from the town of Kolywansk, where it is cut and polished.

Gypsum, or sulphate of lime, and the peculiar form of that mineral called Alabaster, are substances of considerable importance in the arts. Rendered more valuable by a slight admixture of carbonate of lime, the gypsum of Montmartre, near Paris, has long been celebrated for its excellence as a cement or stucco. It is found resting on a limestone of marine origin, and in some places appears immediately beneath the vegetable soil, so that it can be readily and conveniently worked without having recourse to subterranean excavation. These quarries furnish the whole of northern France with the well-known plaster of Paris, and the value of their annual produce amounts to not less than 100,000l.

When sulphate of lime or gypsum assumes the opaque, consistent, and semi-transparent form of alabaster, it is worked like marble. The pure white and harder varieties are usually employed for the sculpture of statues and busts; while the softer kinds are cut into vases, boxes, lamps, and other ornamental objects. The alabaster quarries in the neighbourhood of the ancient Etruscan town of Volterra are the most famous in Europe, and have afforded employment for many centuries to her industrious population. Volterra exports her beautiful produce to all parts of the world, even as far as the interior of China. Beggary is here unknown (a rare case in Italy), for even women and children are all employed in cutting, sawing, rasping, or filing alabaster. In the remotest antiquity, when the city was still called Volathri or Volaterræ, this industry was practised within her walls, and a collection of sepulchral urns and other works of Etruscan art contained in the town-hall bears testimony to her ancient skill. Now, however, art seems to have degenerated into mere manufacturing ability; the statues and other objects are almost always repetitions of the same models, and but very rarely some speculative person introduces

a novelty, for the purpose of obtaining a somewhat higher price for his wares.

Great Britain possesses apparently inexhaustible quantities of alabaster in the red marl formation in the neighbourhood of Derby, where it has been worked for many centuries. The great bulk of it is used for making plaster of Paris, and as a manure, or as the basis of many kinds of cements. For these common industrial purposes it is worked by mining underground, and the stone is blasted by gunpowder; but this shakes it so much as to render it unfit for works of ornament, to procure blocks for which it is necessary to have an open quarry. By removing the superincumbent marl, and laying bare a large surface of the rock, the alabaster, being very irregular in form, and jutting out in several parts, can be sawn out in blocks of a considerable size and comparatively sound. This stone, when preserved from the action of water, which soon decomposes it, is extremely durable, as may be seen in churches all over this country, where monumental effigies many centuries old are still as perfect as when they proceeded from the sculptor's chisel. The Derbyshire alabaster, commonly called Derbyshire spar, gives employment to a good many hands in forming it into useful and ornamental articles. Another kind of alabaster also found in Derbyshire is crystallised in long needlelike silky fibres, which, being susceptible of a high polish and quite lustrous, is used for making necklaces, bracelets, brooches, and other small articles.

Besides her inexhaustible coal, iron, and lead mines, Wales possesses in her slate quarries a great source of mineral wealth. For this article, which many would suppose to be but of secondary importance, is here found in such abundanceand perfection as to command a ready market all over the world. Thus, in North Wales the face of the mountains is everywhere dotted or scarred with slate quarries, of which by far the most important and largest are those of Llandegui, six miles from Bangor, in which more than three thousand persons are employed. This circumstance alone will give an idea of their extent, but still more their having their own harbour, Port Penrhyn, which holds vessels of from 300 to 400 tons,